A Minute to Victory

[Fiela]

September 22nd, 2005
Swartkops Air Force Base, Pretoria.

The weather conditions were great, the crowd uninterested, the camels stinky and the beer warm.
Although al these inadequacies were throwing their hand at the day, the commander of the sleek,grey,Gripen had an unforseen smirk on his face as he
completed his take-off checks.

Not a run for their money, rather for their tempers...

The three aircraft climbed through the hot afternoon sky in a standard line-abreast formation, when the Airshow Directors made the fuss with Tina Turner's "Hero".
The two predators split up and turned around in preparation for the head-to-head face off.

On the ground the crowd sighed in hopelessness for the fact that yet again the Air Force pilots were going to fly a pre-arranged dogfight, and the outcome was certain: The Gripen was to be the loser.
Mother's continued watching their babies, dad's were complaining about the Harvards( their last flight should have been 11 years ago, but the guys persisted irritably with their "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrg" sounding engines), and the aviation enthusiasts weren't really sure what to expect.
Yet, one man was smiling.Today, he would demonstrate the capabilities of Sweden's Gripen.

"Blue Two, this is Lead. Two on one bracket.."
"Affirmative One."

The idea was simple: The two Cheetas would split up; one luring the Gripen by simply turning into his gunsight as an easy prey, whilst the other would come around on his tail.
The lead plane would then jump around in the skies while number two prepares for the shot. (The movie Top Gun is a fine example of this. Maverick engaged Viper in a rage of excitement, just to get shot down by Jester, who snuck in behind him...)

But the Gripen pilot had other plans.
He wouldn't allow either plane to get far enough to engage safely.He rammed his nose right into the Cheetas butt of the first manouevre, and when Blue One got nervous, the Gripen would break off to chase Blue Two
in a frenzy of tight turns and high-g barrel rolls.
The pre-arranged dogfight was long history. This the crowd realised when they heard the hallowed screams of the Cheeta-pilots..
"Get this guy off me..." "Break, Two; Break!!!!!!" "Where is he?????!!"

I could hear that Gripen pilot laughing his little heart out. He had these two guys by their pinkies, and he was turning those little pinkies out of their sockets..
Blue One would try to roam into free space; seperate himself from the fight to fly cover and engage from a farther distance.
He couldn't get away..
The nose of that Gripen stuck to his tail like a man in love with a woman who wouldn't have him.

The fight continued for 14 minutes, neither pilot getting any favour.But at the end however, Blue Two's timing was immaculate.He climbed sharply into an Immelman with the Gripen behind him, and dove straight into a Split-s to shake the little agressor. The Gripen pilot preceded the climb but hadn't anticipated the dive, and overshot. He broke hard to get on his target's tail again, but Blue One had seen the fault and had disengaged( he was right behind the mokus)
to get the distance advantage.
When Red levelled out behind Blue Two, Blue One had him in his sights.

"Peep"
That's it..

The three aircraft rejoined formation to salute the crowd; Blue One and Two with sighs of relief and anguish, even though they had the victory; and I would imagine the Gripen pilot smirking.
"Thank you ladies and gentleman!I had fun. Join the Air Force again next year for another helluva show. Cheers."

I don't remember the name of that pilot, but he was a model example of an ace fighter pilot, right to the end.







"I've had victory in defeat, and defeat in victory.."